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[Page S3066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TOBACCO-FREE YOUTH ACT
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this week, Senator Kaine and I
introduced new legislation to raise the national minimum age for
purchasing tobacco products to 21. Now, it has generated some attention
that Senators from Kentucky and Virginia--States with some connection
to tobacco farming and production--are sponsoring this legislation,
but, as I said Monday, Kentucky farmers don't want their children
forming nicotine addictions in middle school or high school any more
than anyone else.
Well, it turns out a lot of people across the country feel the same
way we do. We have already seen more than a dozen experts, advocates,
and public health groups come to rally around our legislation. One such
organization said that the proposal would ``support smoking prevention
among a population that is particularly susceptible to addiction, whose
brains are still developing, and among whom nicotine use can have long-
term developmental harms.''
When you consider the design of our approach, it is hardly surprising
that leading voices in this area are lining up with enthusiasm. It is
practical, it is within our reach, and it can become law. Our
legislation simply works from the foundation of existing law. We take
the existing mechanisms that are in Federal statute today to enforce
the 18-year minimum standard and replace ``18'' with ``21.'' It is
simple, it is straightforward, and it builds on what we know works.
Not only does this approach streamline implementation for addressing
a widely acknowledged public health crisis, but it also preserves the
freedom of individual States to go even further in their efforts to
protect vulnerable youth. Yet it ensures States cannot enact anything
less protective than the Federal T21 standard.
As I said earlier in the week, all youth below the age of 21 deserve
the same protections from the public health crisis of nicotine
addiction. Anyone who actually reads our bill will see that our
intentions are clear and above reproach. Partisan griping will not save
lives, nor will it prevent even more middle schoolers from yielding to
potentially deadly addiction. As one advocate put it, ``Every extra day
it takes to put this important legislation into effect is an
opportunity for thousands more kids to access a tobacco product that
can damage their developing brains.''
Now is the time for us to join together in a bipartisan manner and
actually get a result that our Nation's youth so obviously need. In
just 3 days since introduction, I have been encouraged by the support
the Tobacco-Free Youth Act has received. I look forward to working with
each of our colleagues to make it a reality and fight back against the
scourge of addiction among America's young people.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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